SPRINGFIELD -- Two downtown business owners were assaulted this week by an apparently drunken patron after he was asked to leave a Worthington Street restaurant in the middle of the day, according to police and court records.

Thomas F. Bridges, 27, of Chicopee, was charged with aggravated assault and assault with a dangerous weapon after a pair of battles with restaurant owner Victor C. Bruno and hookah bar owner Yazen Al-Asad on Tuesday, the records state.

A police report states Bridges entered one of Bruno's restaurants "extremely drunk" and became belligerent when a bartender refused to serve him. Bruno asked Bridges to leave, and the man attacked him, leaving the restaurant owner bleeding and unconscious on the floor.

Bridges fled the restaurant and Al-Asad attempted to stop the man on the sidewalk.

"I saw a commotion, and I didn't know if he had stolen something. I didn't realize it was a fight. Then he punched me in the face," Al-Asad said on Friday, sporting a Band-Aid on the side of his nose.

Bridges made $1,000 bail in Springfield District Court on July 10, court records show. He is due in court for a pretrial conference in the assault case on Aug. 6.

Bridges has several open cases in district courts around Hampden County including for charges of larceny and receiving stolen property, plus many other closed cases involving charges of assault on a police officer, breaking and entering, and shoplifting, public records show.

Bridges could not be reached for comment late Friday afternoon.

Bruno, who was ultimately coaxed by police to seek medical attention, had little to say about the incident except that he was coming to the aid of a female employee and Bridges allegedly "sucker punched" him before digging his thumbs into his eyes.

"What do you want me to say? It's Springfield," said Bruno, who owns Adolfo's and Art e Pizza on Worthington Street.

Petra Hookah Lounge owner Yazen Al-Asad was one of two downtown business owners attacked on July 10, 2018, by a drunken bar patron, according to police records.

Al-Asad opened Petra Hookah Lounge in 2011 and said the business has thrived with a professional crowd coming in early and a younger crowd typically arriving around 10 each night.

He said the issue that he feels has plagued downtown businesses is homeless drug addicts and aggressive panhandlers.

"They've got to get control over the homeless people," Al-Asad said. "We don't have many problems aside from that."

The attacks on Bruno and Al-Asad happened one day before Mayor Domenic Sarno and Police Commissioner John Barbieri held a press conference outside the MassMutual Center on Dwight Street to announce the presence of a new police substation in advance of the MGM Springfield casino opening.